5 on Friday

Okay so this is definitely more than 5 things but after not having blogged all week we have a little catch up!

1. These kids love to read! Holden brings me books all the time and then climbs in my lap for me to read them to him. I was pretty worried in the beginning because my children seemed to hate books but I'm loving now that they can communicate to me that they want to be read to.

2. This totally happened the day before our anniversary. Whoops!

3. The babies are growing up! Time to learn to eat with silverware (or plasticware in their case). We've also introduced the potty. We aren't planning on potty training yet but I would like to do it pretty early on. My mom has sort of challenged me because she potty trained all three of us by the time we were 2 (I was potty trained at 18 months). 

giving up on the spoon 

seriously dad?

4. We headed up to Asheboro last weekend to celebrate my mother in law's birthday. The kids had fun playing outside and eating homemade ice cream. 

we LOVE the biscuits at biscuit company and Emma Cate and Holden both enjoyed their first experience. 

5. We took Holden and EC out to brunch with my family last weekend. Yes, Holden totally looked like a retiree in his khakis and white shirt but it is hard to match lilly! We also stuck a baseball cap on him for good measure and he looked like a total dork. Ha!

6. I enjoyed the BEST nap Sunday afternoon. We hardly ever use our living room and it was sooo peaceful in there. Its nice to have a space in our home that isn't covered in kid (although you can see a stroller handle and our big candle is down because little hands got a hold of it!)

7. My first one ever. Can't get enough.

8. First day of school at preschool #2. I've got to upload my photos from the big camera and do a whole post on this but until then...

ready for my first day!

don't leave! (don't worry she calmed down a few minutes after)

9. This sweet little boy decided to escape his crib on Wednesday morning and we ended up with a trip to the ER. Everything was totally fine, they just wanted to check him out and observe him since he fell on the hardwood. That evening my mom came over and we worked for a LONG time trying to lower the crib (we lowered them months ago but Jay didn't put it on the lowest setting...my mom had been warning him for the past month to lower it more). Finally Jay came home and we finished and now there is hopefully no more escaping! Also- keeping at 15 month old contained in a small room at the ER for 3+ hours of observation is no fun. I put all the dirty moveable things (trashcan, soiled linen bag/cart, food tray) in the hallway and a nurse came and brought them all back in and scolded me for moving them out there. I about lost it on her because I was so tired from chasing a baby around for 2 hours. I'm writing the hospital to ask that they make the children's emergency rooms more "child" friendly. Jay came over for a little bit so I could run and grab something to eat and take a little break. 

10. I have found my calling in life. I am going to be a professional lunch maker. Besides the 30 minutes it took me to make cheese letters for the kids names, I really actually enjoy making fun lunches for the kids. I am particular about the food we put in their bodies (they do of course get treats, I'm not psycho about it) and I enjoy finding new ways for them to eat. I've learned that the blunt end of a bamboo skewer is the perfect size for popping food out of small cookie cutters. My kids have never been big fans of peppers but I cut them into little stars and they ate them all! 

Baby #3 Week 9

This pregnancy is flying by! I can't believe we'll be able to start telling people soon! We had an ultrasound yesterday and baby is growing perfectly! I am able to stop my shots (YAY!) and start scaling back on all of the other meds. I am getting excited to start planning the nursery and DYING to find out what we are having! Emma Cate and Holden know that mommy has a baby (well they can't comprehend). Emma Cate can say baby and kisses my tummy so sweet!  

Pregnancy Highlights:

Today's Date: Friday, September 13th, 2013

How Far Along: 9 weeks

Size of baby: green olive (yuck).

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Up 3.5 lbs total

Maternity Clothes: Just put on my trust maternity skinny jeans today. They feel sooo good! Elastic waist I have missed you. I'm not showing a lot but my stomach is just a bit too big for my regular jeans.

Gender: Still think its a boy

Movement:  Nope. We saw a little movement on the ultrasound but mostly baby was pretty chill.

Sleep: I need more! I am sooo tired. Looking forward to the weekend and hopefully catching up a bit.

What I miss: energy, caffeine, pumpkin beer 

Cravings: Special K

Symptoms: My nose is going crazy. every smell is so intense! I am still pretty nauseous and haven't been very hungry. still enjoying a pretty carby diet.

Best Moment this week: Seeing the baby and getting released from reach! We are headed to the "big" doctor now!

Baby's now the size of a green olive!Your little embryo has now officially graduated to fetus-hood. Adding to the excitement, a Doppler ultrasound device might be able to pick up the beating heart. With basic physical structures in place and increasingly distinct facial features, baby is kind of starting to look like...well...a baby!

5 on Friday

Linking up to share 5 things this Friday!

1. Our school started doing words of affirmation that the students write the teachers. It really is sweet to feel appreciated :) I love that one student wrote "i love what you were".

2. The kids started preschool #1 this week (entire wrap up post to come as soon as I get all the pics off of my camera!). I am a labeling machine! I'm so glad my monogrammed lunch boxes and sticky labels came in just in the nick of time!

My first time packing lunches

we have NO napkins in the house so jay came to the rescue when he pulled the tailgate ones out of the tailgate stash in the basement! 

first day of school pic!

3. Being left handed sucks sometimes! Look at the permanent marker smear! (I ended up flipping it over and using the back!) Our chalkboard is on order.

4. I ordered these lovlies in JULY and they just now showed up! UGH! Can't wait to wear them next year though! (i'm getting a pedicure today....)

5. I had to send family pictures into preschool and found this sweet one of my baby girl. Its amazing how much she has changed in the 2 months since this picture was taken!

Baby #3 Week 8

It is so different being pregnant for the second time. I often forget that I'm pregnant until I pray with the babies at night and we pray for their little brother or sister. Today was the first day that I remembered I was pregnant right off the bat. I was hit with morning sickness mid-teeth brushing. I thought I was going to escape morning sickness this time around but I guess not! It happened around the same time last pregnancy. We had a crazy busy week with lots of travel to the mid-west. We told our families (well my immediately family knew, but Jay's family and my extended family) that we were pregnant. The twins' reaction was priceless! I can't wait to get the picture from my mom! I listened to my body and took a break during our hectic weekend because I started having some cramps. We headed back to the hotel to watch a movie while the babies explored the room. I've been dreaming of nurseries and know that we are sticking with a light grey. The twins also started preschool and I've felt the need to share with people that we are pregnant but we haven't yet!

Pregnancy Highlights:

Today's Date: Friday, September 6th

How Far Along: 8 Weeks (I can't believe I'm two months!)

Size of baby: Babies are the size of raspberries.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Up three pounds total

Maternity Clothes: No, although I want to! I feel like my tummy is getting "puffier" but definitely no baby bump. Hopefully I can make it through this clothing transition time without having to purchase maternity clothes!

Gender: I'm feeling a boy but the morning sickness is throwing me off.

Movement:  None yet! 

Sleep: I'm tired but can't stop with a hubby in grad school and two toddlers. I try to get at least 8 hours though. I've woken up around 4am the past few mornings but easily went back to sleep.

What I miss: Wine, fall pumpkin beers! 

Cravings: Still Coke Icees, bland cereal (Special K, Crispex)

Symptoms: tired, crampy, nauseus at times, a few bouts of morning sickness

Best Moment this week: Seeing all of our family and announcing our little surprise!

your baby's the size of a raspberry!

Now she weighs in (yay!) at about .04 ounces and measures about .63 inches. This week, she's growing about a milimeter each day.

Labor Day Weekend (lots of pictures!)

We loaded these babies up for a long road trip to Indiana for labor day weekend. Most of my mom's family was headed into the town that my grandfather lives in to celebrate his 77th birthday. It was a long drive for a short trip but we had a ton of fun seeing family that we don't see very often. Originally we had planned to leave really early in the morning and get a good chunk of driving underway while the kids slept but they scheduled preschool orientation (for preschool #1) the Friday morning before labor day so we didn't get out of town until 12:45. My mom drove up with us and my Dad met us up there. My sisters weren't able to come because of their work schedules and we missed hanging out with them!

Our first stop (one hour outside of Charlotte) was Cracker Barrel for lunch. You can't road trip with my family without stopping at Cracker Barrel.

this girl LOVES sweet tea like her Daddy!

A look back at the packed car. We bought the new car just in time for this trip! Jay had a bit of a fit because my mom gave the kids crackers! Haha, there went his clean car!

this DVD player is old, like from back in the day when I used to be a passenger on my parent's road trips and we didn't have a DVD player built into the car. My Dad suggested we use them for the kids to keep them entertained. We don't normally let the kids watch a ton of TV but all the rules go out of the window on vacations. They watched movies the entire way there and back (when they weren't asleep). It was GREAT! Thanks Dad for the recommendation!

After a stop at the Ohio border (where I left a bag of dirty cloth diapers! UGH!) we continued traveling and ate a late dinner at Bob Evan's (another mid-west travel favorite). The kids needed a little release and the restaurant was pretty empty so I let them run around barefoot for a little (ew gross, I know). We finally arrived in Indiana at mid-night and after some playtime with their cousins, we got the twins to bed at 1.

The next morning we met everyone for breakfast and all went out separate ways. My mom is one of 5 and they all decided to get my Grandpa a new lazy boy for his birthday and all of the siblings went to the store to pick it out with him. Jay, my cousin Erin, the kids, and I headed to a park in my Grandparent's old neighborhood (where we would visit for 4 weeks each summer). I couldn't believe all the old playground equipment was still there 23 years later. You can't find slides like these anymore!

"Rocket Park" Arlington Neighborhood, Fort Wayne, Indiana

This teeter totter was so fun!

I don't think they make these anymore (my 16 year old cousin had never seen one). I have tons of memories of my sister and I spinning each other so fast around this thing!

They added some new equipment too

slide faces 

We all met back up for a huge celebration lunch for my Grandfather at Triangle Park restaurant. My mom has all these pictures as I was busy taking care of the kids (we were there for 3 hours!). There were 19 of us total and everyone took turns walking the kids outside to feed the ducks at the nearby pond.

After lunch we headed back to my Grandpa's house (he lives way out in the country with his girlfriend Susan) for ice cream and cupcakes. Shortly after we packed up and headed back into town for the Tin Caps (their minor league team) game. These lawn seats were awesome and the kids had a blast running around and dancing (they are turning into dancing machines). Emma Cate sat on my Uncle Scott's lap for the majority of the game. The game ended with the loudest fireworks show I have ever seen but the kids LOVED it. They were troopers and stayed up past 10 with no afternoon nap. 

Part of the family on the lawn

we teased my uncle scott and dad about being a "couple", especially when Scott had EC on his lap and the couple kiss cam came on!

EC's new buddy

Cousin Erin (Scott's daughter) and EC

Gigi and a tired Holdy (and yes, we borrowed blankets from the Hotel to use for the game!)

loving the fireworks

tuckered out babies

Sunday morning before heading home we all went to brunch and took a bunch of family pictures (I don't have any of them though!) We packed up and headed south to Columbus Ohio with my mom's sister Barbara, her husband, my Dad, Jay and the babies. We checked in and had a little playtime before heading to lunch at Skyline Chili (another mid-west treat). The babies were a disaster but LOVED it!

Jay and I enjoyed (for a little while at least) the drive through all of the small farming towns and corn fields. We were both pretty intrigued by these large windmill farms.

The babies were obsessed with the luggage cart!

double bibbing it at skyline.

We took a little driving tour of Columbus (my aunt and uncle used to live there) and Jay, the babies, and I headed back to the hotel for some playtime while the rest of the adults went shopping. We ended the night with room service cocktails and Donatos pizza ordered in! We were all pretty pooped by this point!

We left early the next morning and had a pretty uneventful ride back! The babies are SUCH awesome car riders and made the trip so easy! We're already planning a long drive up to Traverse City, Michigan to stay at my Aunt and Uncle's lake house next 4th of July! We had such a fun visit with family :)